The Group has commenced production of the kit at its Adaltis facility in Rome. BATM is working with academic and research institutions, mainly in Europe, to progress the kit to make it at a price point suitable for large scale production. The kit, which supports all the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations, has already received interest from customers in several countries.
In addition, COVID-19 will be included within the Ador suite of testing kits as part of its travel panels. Laboratory bench tests are expected to commence imminently.
Dr Zvi Marom, Chief Executive Officer of BATM, said, “We believe that the strategy we adopted in our Bio-Medical division is proving to be correct, especially in light of the current COVID-19 outbreak. We are able now to quickly provide diagnostic kits for any new pathogen that appears.
“Furthermore, we have already received extremely positive feedback and significant interest from several leading medical institutions that have started testing the first panel of Ador’s NATlab solution and adding COVID-19 will greatly strengthen its appeal and value.”
BATM had previously developed diagnostic kits for SARS and MERS. The company’s experts believe coronavirus, like is predecessors, will weaken and its spread will halt as the weather gets warmer toward the end of April. And that will give BATM an opportunity to develop ways to more quickly and efficiently diagnose outbreaks should the virus return later in the year.
Source: BATM